Winter Abonos Verdes Take Hold

Hello again after a long winter break. In the middle of April the cold began to hit the region and country of Paraguay. What I had previously described as a Northwest summer soon turned into a real winter with cold rains, bone chilling winds, and even minor frosts.

Picking up where I left off, I hit the road in my community at the time that all farmers were finishing up with there corn and beans and entering into the dormant winter season. It was my goal to spread the word about the benefits of winter covercrops. In my case I highlighted black oats (avena negra) and lupino, a hearty winter bean. Both crops are rustic in nature and able to withstand the extreme temperatures of the Paraguayan winter. The combination of both crops in a field for their duration is extremely beneficial to the soil providing coverage and ample amounts of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium, the three main nutrients needed for abundant plant growth. The coverage given will in turn provide protection from wind and water erosion and is also beneficial because it prevents the growth of weeds and grasses. In the tradicional agricultural systems of small scale farming in Paraguay, the plant matter of fallow fields will eat existing nutrients from the soil and are then burned off or plowed under returning a minimal amount nutrients to the soil.

There are also fringe benefits to this combination covercrop. The oats are an outstanding source of protein and carbohydrates for chickens, pigs, and even horses if produced on a large scale. The seeds from both crops have long shelf lives and a good resistence to pests and mildew. They also both produce close to ten times the ammount of seed that is originally planted. This means that if properly saved and harvested, a farmer needs only once to invest in the seed to provide an almost unlimited potential for the use of these crops.

My greatest tool in the dispersement and dissemination of this knowledge was my community contact. Karai Luis Santander was one of the few farmers in my site able to set aside the cultural barriers and obstacles for men working with women in the field, and actually began to use abonos verdes with the volunteer before me. I feel fortunate that while in many cases she was unable to actiely participate in work in the fields, she was persistent and successful in building awareness of abonos verdes as a sustainable agricultural practice. Throughout the month of May I brought a total of 8 farmers to view the results this covercrop had produced for Karai Luis. His corn withstood the drought because of the organic matter and ceverage on top of the soild that the dead black oats and lupino provided. His cotton that he planted a month late and without any of the customary cow manuer, had grown to the same size and with the same productivity as the cotton planted on time and with the extra manuer. In both cases the visiting farmers were impresed and motivated to undertake the same practice on their fields.